Pachinko Season 1 Recap: Here’s What You Need To Know Before Chapter Two

Min Jin Lee’s 2017 novel Pachinko has been adapted into the magnificent Apple TV+ series created by Come on hughStarring Kim Min HaLee Min-hoo and Yoon Yuh Jung, Pachinko returns with a new season on August 23, traveling back in time to tell the story of Korean immigrants in Japan. Before the new season premieres, here’s a refresher to catch you up on the events of Season 1. Warning, spoilers ahead!

One of the main characters of Pachinko Sunja is a teenager and a young woman played by Kim Min-ha and an old woman played by Youn Yuh-jung. The story is mainly about her family and how they survive throughout the generations, especially after immigrating to Osaka, Japan during hard times.

The special girl Sunja

In 1910s Korea, Sunja’s mother Yangjin prays for a son to reverse a curse. She and her husband Hoonie (Lee Dae-ho) have not survived more than a year. The shaman she visits assures Yangjin that her son will not only survive, but endure, which sets the tone for the show and the season. Young Sunja grows up with the love of her parents, but her father dies of tuberculosis when she is a child.

A smart, pretty and intuitive teenager Sunja catches the Koh Hansu (Lee Min Ho), an imposing fish merchant at the Yeongdo market. The two continue to have close encounters until Hansu saves Sunja from some Japanese teenagers who are bullying her. Soon, they begin a secret affair that changes both of their lives.

Sunja and Hansu’s romance

Sunja and Hansu have clandestine encounters away from the eyes of society and it is not long before Sunja finds herself pregnant. When she tells this to Hansu, thinking they are getting married, she gets a nasty surprise. Hansu is already married with children and offers to keep Sunja as a mistress. Devastated, she runs away to inform her mother. While this may be the end of the brief affair, Sunja and Hansu remain close, because of the child they have.

Sunja marries pastor Isak

In 1931, an ailing Korean pastor, Isak (Steve Sang-Hyun Noh), arrives at Sunja’s mother’s boarding house and overhears their conversation as she recovers. Once she recovers, he offers her two options: adoption or marriage. Ultimately, she decides to marry the kind man, unaware that Hansu has already intimidated him. Isak and Sunja leave Korea to join his brother Yoseb (Han Joon-Woo) and Yoseb’s wife Kyunghee (Jung Eun-chae) in Osaka, Japan. In the new country, Sunja gives birth to her son with Hansu, who is named Noa, but is raised by Isak’s family, despite her initial misgivings.

Sunja’s grandson, Solomon

In 1989, Sunja’s adult grandson, Solomon (Jin Ha) is a top businessman working at the American bank Shiffley’s. He is the son of Sunja’s youngest son, Mozasu (Soji Arai), who runs a pachinko parlor and returns to Tokyo to negotiate a big deal and land a big promotion. However, he doesn’t anticipate encountering a stubborn Korean landowner (Park Hye-jin) who refuses to sell, putting his promotion in jeopardy.

Solomon and Hana’s emotional reunion

While there are some sparks between Solomon and his Japanese colleague Naomi (Anna Sawai), it is the return of his childhood friend Hana (Mari Yamamoto) that turns his life upside down. Hana has been missing since he was a teenager and she begins calling him in distress. Hana’s mother Etsuko (Kaho Minami) is seeing Solomon’s father Mozasu. Sadly, they find Hana too late as she is in a hospital dying of AIDS. The two friends have an emotional reunion after they left on uncertain terms. They all help Hana through her final days, making her feel more comfortable.

Sunja returns to Korea

This isn’t the only death this season, as Kyunghee (Felice Choi) also dies after a prolonged illness. Mozasu brings his mother Sunja back to Korea, where he scatters Kyunghee’s ashes and gives her soul peace. Sunja also finds her beloved father’s grave thanks to an old friend.

Hansu’s mysterious past

Pachinko It also shows Hansu’s teenage life with his father in Japan. He is tutoring an American boy in mathematics and is accompanying him to Yale in the United States, when the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 occurs, killing his father and the Holmes family who were to sponsor his trip. When he finds their bodies, he takes the watch worn by the mother, and it becomes an important part of his and Sunja’s lives. Hansu then joins forces with a yakuza boss, who had employed his father, and adjusts to his new role as the crime boss’s partner.

What happened to Isak?

Sunja and Isak welcome their second child, Mosazu, and shortly after the doljabi (a Korean choosing ceremony) of the one-year-old, Isak is arrested for treason against the emperor. The event leaves a lasting impression on young Noa and the rest of the family, as it completely changes the family dynamic and Sunja has to leave home to earn money by cooking for a living.

So what will happen in? Pachinko Season 2Will Isak return? Will Sunja and Hansu meet again? And why don’t we see Noa in the future? Hopefully the answers to these and many more questions will be resolved in season two.